Abstract
After the detection of the myrtle rust pathogen, Austropuccinia psidii, in New Zealand, a biosecurity response was initiated, including a wide-spread surveillance programme. Through an intensive public awareness initiative, the general public was highly engaged in reporting myrtle rust infections and added significant value to the surveys by reporting first detections from most of the areas that are now known to be infected. During the first year of the response, Austropuccinia psidii was found in areas that were predicted to be at high infection risk in previous modelling studies. Significant surveillance resources were deployed to different parts of the country and the response surveillance team contributed to most of the new host species finds. Twenty -four species and six hybrids of Myrtaceae have been confirmed to be naturally infected by myrtle rust in New Zealand. Eleven of these are new host records globally and three were previously recorded only as experimental hosts.
Highlights
The causal agent of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii, Sphaerophragmiaceae, Pucciniales) was first identified as an invasive pathogen when it caused the allspice industry collapse in Jamaica in the 1930s (MacLachlan 1938), followed by the damaging impact on eucalypt industries in Brazil (Dianese et al 1984)
We provide an overview of the diagnostic activities over the first year of response to A. psidii in New Zealand and present its distribution as well as the list of affected host species
7,000 calls reporting myrtle rust were processed by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) exotic pest and disease hotline during the first year of myrtle rust response in New Zealand
Summary
The causal agent of myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii (synonym Puccinia psidii), Sphaerophragmiaceae, Pucciniales) was first identified as an invasive pathogen when it caused the allspice industry collapse in Jamaica in the 1930s (MacLachlan 1938), followed by the damaging impact on eucalypt industries in Brazil (Dianese et al 1984). Austropuccinia psidii infects a range of species in the Myrtaceae family which contains over 5,500 species in 144 genera. These plants have a Gondwanan distribution and provide an important floristic component, especially in the areas where it is most species diverse (i.e. South America, Australia and Southeast Asia) (Vasconcelos et al 2017). In the native range of myrtle rust in South America, several lineages or genetic clusters of the fungus have been found (Ross-Davis et al 2013). Two lineages are known to have spread out of South America: the pandemic biotype that has been found in Asia, Australia, Colombia, and the Pacific countries (du Plessis et al 2019), and the unique biotype that to date has only been found from South Africa (Roux et al 2016)
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